Complete the AesDes Perception Survey by midnight Tuesday January 12! You will receive an email invitation from Qualtrics with a link. Your responses will be kept anonymous from me until after the end of the semester. You may opt out of the survey without penalty, but you must send an email to the TA to do so.

Complete the CATME Team Builder survey by Friday January 15 midnight. This survey is not optional. You will receive an email invitation for this too. Use your CU email address lastname@colorado.edu, and your CU login ID, usually something like name1234. Be sure to read the directions for indicating your schedule very carefully!

Create your login on the course website, AesDes.org, which will allow you to post to the blogs. That’s right, you’ll get an email invitation for this too. Your first required blog post is described below. Please read my post on posting guidelines.

Explore an aesthetic. We will go over the definition and examples in class, but keep this assignment in mind. As a special blog post, identify an aesthetic, include at least 6 images and/or videos illustrating it, and discuss the context a bit. When was it created? Who were the big players? What influenced it? What has it influenced since then? Be sure to find the original authors of your images and videos, and provide citations for all your information sources. This blog post will be due Jan 20. Be sure to categorize your post as ‘Aesthetic Explorations’. You’ll also be asked to do a short presentation of your exploration in class sometime between Weds Jan 20 and the end of the semester.

This will be your individual warm-up project. Create an artifact that conforms to an aesthetic, either the aesthetic you researched, or one that someone else in class posted about. Upcycle means that your artifact should be constructed of inexpensive or recycled material, something easy to manipulate using additive or subtractive techniques: cardboard, foam core, drywall, sticks, plastic forks or plates, soda cans/bottles, Legos, bubblewrap or packing peanuts, stir sticks, straw, hay, cloth, papier Mache, tires, DVDs, PVC, food, plastic bags etc. You’ll be asked to document your design and construction process, so keep track of where you find inspiration. In particular, if you use an existing design you must document the source, but hopefully you will use this opportunity to create something new. Your artifact should be of moderate size, something between 0.5 and 8 cubic feet; can be small but must be viewable without a microscope, or up to as large as a chair. We will have a display day in class on Monday February 1, and short in-class presentations.